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Redmond Says No “Plan” to Send Large Updates Over Metered Connections; Dear Microsoft, When Will You Learn?

Promises no large updates over metered connections; wants you to trust it; and not yet ready for more details

We reported earlier in the week that Microsoft was planning to get back some control over how users download and install their updates. In one of this week’s Creators Update Preview builds, a slight change in the text revealed that the company was planning to have control over downloading some updates on Windows 10 metered connections. This meant that while Windows 10 Anniversary Update currently cannot download updates on metered connections, with the Creators Update, Microsoft will start automatically downloading some updates.

The Windows 10 metered connection essentially means the type of internet connectivity that limits the amount of data usage per month and charges heavily for extra MBs. This means users could possibly face some large bills if Windows 10 starts to download even small updates over metered connections.

Following this report, we had contacted Microsoft if this is just a change that they are experimenting in the Preview builds and won’t be released to the public. We also asked if the company indeed plans to release this change, what updates would exactly fall in the category of making Windows run smoothly?

The software maker wrote in an emailed statement that it wouldn’t be downloading “large updates” over metered connections. Here’s what it said (emphasis is ours):

“We don’t plan to send large updates over metered connections, but could use this for critical fixes if needed in the future.”

This statement doesn’t clear up anything since – again – what exactly would be considered critical fixes? Would this mean every Patch Tuesday will be considered as critical updates? Apparently not. Microsoft led us to this web page for more information. While there’s nothing written about “critical fixes” exactly, the document does offer an explanation of what a critical update means. Nope, doesn’t have to do with security.